explain
/ɪkˈspleɪn/verb
explain is spelled E-X-P-L-A-I-N. The wrong spelling people search most is expalin: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 417 of all searches for the word. Explain is a verb meaning “To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of”.
How many letters and syllables are in explain?
| Letters | 7: E-X-P-L-A-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 78 times per million words; the 1,369th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, expalin, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell explain?
Explain is spelled E-X-P-L-A-I-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 420 of the searches for explain in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is explain?
Explain appears 78 times per million words in written English, the 1,369th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce explain?
- /ɪkˈspleɪn/
- /ɛkˈspleɪn/
Explain has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-explain.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of explain
- explains present, singular, he/she/it
- explaining participle, present
- explained participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does explain mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
The issue was explained to the governor in detail.
- 2
To give the reason for, justification for, or cause of.
- 3
obsoleteTo make flat, smooth out.
- 4
obsoleteTo unfold or make visible.
April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter The horse-chestnut is […] ready to explain its leaf.
- 5
To make something plain or intelligible.
She tried to explain but he wouldn’t listen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Explain in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | expliquer , justifier |
| German | erklären, erläutern |
| Portuguese | explicar, explanar, explicitar |
| Spanish | explicar, explanar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does explain come from?
From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explanō (“to flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + planō (“to flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced Old English reċċan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).